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Saddam minister Tariq Aziz to face trial for executing traders

Other News Materials 27 April 2008 19:23 (UTC +04:00)

Tariq Aziz, the former deputy premier and foreign minister under Saddam Hussein, is to face trial Tuesday accused of ordering the execution of 42 traders in 1992, an Iraqi court official said Sunday.

A totalof eight senior officials of the former regime will stand trial on charges of ordering the execution of the merchants from Baghdad's Shurja market for increasing food prices in 1992, the chief of Iraq's high criminal court, Arif Shahin, the dpa reported.

Saddam accused the merchants of manipulating prices, which soared in the wake of UN sanctions imposed after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The merchants were rounded up, given a summary trial and then executed.

Other senior officials to stand trial include Saddam's half- brother, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, and the former Central Bank governor, Isam Rashid Hawish.

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